


Halfway

by parisique



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Snipers, Dark Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug, F/M, Kidnapping
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-21
Updated: 2020-07-21
Packaged: 2021-03-05 02:14:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 1,924
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25416742
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/parisique/pseuds/parisique
Summary: Marinette Dupain-Cheng is 2 when she enters the lair of Hawk and Moth, two criminals who are at odds with Gabriel Agreste’s alter ego, Papillon. Since then, 13 years have passed, and from the ashes of her old life, the sniper Ladybug has emerged - and she’s on a mission for Papillon’s head.Please note that this ends on a cliffhanger.
Relationships: Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir/Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug, Emilie Agreste & Master Fu (Miraculous Ladybug), Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug & Lila Rossi, Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug & Master Fu
Comments: 7
Kudos: 21





	1. Noir

“A coffee. Black.” The man in sunglasses was the first customer of the day, and Sabine smiled at him cheerily.

“Coming right up,” she said. Turning from where her daughter was playing on the counter with her doll next to the register, she reached for a cup.

Sabine turned back around to the jingling of the bell above the bakery door, a full cup of hot, fresh coffee in her hand. Marinette’s doll was lying on the counter and the man in all black was gone.

The cup of coffee splattered over her feet, the hot liquid seeping through her shoes and socks.

“Tom!”

The little doll stared sadly with it’s button eyes as Tom and Sabine spoke with the police. The doll was swept off the counter and cradled close to a mother’s chest as security cameras were installed, and eventually it was set on the kitchen table, where one of the three seats remained forever vacant.

Meanwhile, across the city, a large man was handing off a young girl to a pair of people. The woman looked down at the girl and smiled. Her companion regarded their newest before exchanging a nod with the man in black.

She would do just fine.


	2. HawkMoth

Hawk was a tall lady with sly green eyes and a neat bun tied at the base of her neck. Her every movement was fluid, one motion moving into the next without pause. She was always three steps ahead of everyone else.

Moth was a short man with haunted eyes and dark hair that was graying at his receding hairline. His every step was calculated, measured, so that he knew the consequences of what he was doing at all times. He was quiet enough to pass for invisible.

Marinette had grown up with them, sleeping in the dormitory with the other students and dining in the common area. Hawk and Moth taught the students, fed the students until they were old enough to learn how to cook for themselves, clothed the students until they were old enough to sew their own clothes, and sheltered them.

Their school, if it could be called that, had no name. It was located somewhere in Paris, though if I told you  _ exactly _ where, you wouldn’t like the consequences and neither would I. There were four floors - one which Hawk and Moth shared, one for the students’ dormitories, one for the common area, and one for training.

The students were trained in life skills, shooting (both long- and short-range), and close hand-to-hand combat, as well as a few other miscellaneous skills - putting together a bomb from sundry household objects, making makeshift parachutes, the best way to ensure survival from varying heights. It was all very useful, in their line of work, at least.

“Good work today,” Hawk said as Marinette walked out of the training room.

“Thank you,” Marinette said, and Hawk gave her a nod.

Praise from Hawk and Moth were rare, and most of the time it was given to Marinette. Throughout her time there, she’d quickly risen through the ranks, surpassing others in terms of both skill and drive. At 15, she was the jewel of their organization.

The only other person who came anywhere close to her was the closest thing to a friend that Marinette had, and she was called Lila. Lila was competent enough at the technical skills they were trained in, but her greatest asset came in the form of sweet smiles and words worth their weight in gold. She could weasel her way into a stranger’s heart with a sweet smile just as quickly as Marinette could do the same with a sharp object precisely placed between their fourth and fifth ribs.

That wasn’t to say Marinette couldn’t be nice and use her words - she just preferred the weapons. For her, it was easier, and the cleanup process was about the same.

The other students fell far, far behind Marinette and Lila in using their hands and their words. There were seven of them, and they were good enough - compared to the average passerby, they were exceptional, of course, but compared to Lila and Marinette and Hawk and Moth, they really weren’t anything special, and they all knew it.

So it was no surprise when Marinette was called up to Hawk and Moth’s floor one evening. 

“Marinette,” Hawk said, waving her into the room, “come in.”

The main part of the room consisted of a large table and some chairs. There were two doors on each side, leading to their personal rooms. Thin column sconces along the walls provided light.

On the table was a model of a house and a photo of a woman with sideswept bangs. There was a red streak in her hair, and she wore glasses. She was not smiling.

“This is your mission,” Hawk said as Marinette examined the photograph. “Your very first.”

Marinette nodded, looking up at her mentors. Like her, they were both dressed in all black, their clothes fitted enough for efficiency but not so much that it was ineffective. Moth had schooled his face into his constantly neutral expression, and Hawk was beaming.

“This is Nathalie?” Marinette asked.

Hawk nodded. “Yes, exactly! Her bedroom is here.” Lifting the roof of the model, she pointed to a room in the house. Marinette nodded, needing only a glance to know which room it was.

Every student had the same model, after all - each had built it themselves, from scratch. It was all part of their shared goal.

“You will go tonight,” Moth said, and Marinette gave another nod.

“Okay,” she said, and when Moth tilted his head towards her and Hawk gave her another smile, Marinette took it as her cue to leave.

She headed for her room, where she would get what she needed and go.

Since the beginning, Hawk and Moth had been working towards one goal - to bring down Gabriel Agreste. He had taken something from both of them, and for two decades, they had worked to gain those things back - and they were very, very close.

For Hawk, it was her son, Adrien. For Moth, it was his Peacock brooch.

You see, Hawk and Moth were not just running a typical, run-of-the-mill sniper school. They had access to something more - something greater. They possessed special jewels that elevated the wearer’s skills. Hawk wore the Moth brooch, and Moth owned the Turtle bracelet. For Lila, they had given the Fox necklace, and Marinette had the Ladybug earrings. The rest of the students had yet to show an affinity for a certain area of their trade, but when they did, and did so excellently, they, too, would receive one of the enhancing jewels.

But alas, Gabriel Agreste also had one such jewel - that of the Peacock. So though Hawk and Moth had managed to drive his business to the ground, he was still able to run an underground fighting ring, winning and losing large sums of money by betting on his son in fights. All of Adrien’s extracurriculars had paid off, and he was a rather good fighter, if Gabriel might say. However, all of the other fighters who were equal or better than Adrien had mysteriously been shot dead a few days after he stepped into the ring. It was strange, but it worked in his favour, so Gabriel paid it no mind.

As long as he could live in relative peace in his manor, with his son relatively safe and alive and by his side, and his … Nathalie keeping things relatively under control, and the bodyguard was relatively paid off to stay under his employment and keep quiet about his more criminal activities, Gabriel Agreste could live in relative happiness.

But not if Hawk, Moth, and Marinette had anything to say about it.


	3. Crossroads

Marinette was lost.

She had studied the model from all angles and she knew it like the back of her hand. So why was she standing in an empty bedroom with  _ a rock-climbing wall _ and  _ skateboard ramps _ and  _ a foosball table _ when she should have been standing above a sleeping Nathalie Sancoeur?

Well, it was nothing that couldn’t be remedied. The house had 11 other bedrooms, and while Marinette may not have been able to look in all of them hoping to be right and not run into any light sleepers, she knew a house this large must have security cameras.

So, she made for the office, which was the logical place to go. Hawk had hacked into the security feed and frozen the screens, but one of them surely showed which bedroom housed her target.

Marinette was silently hurrying down the stairs when she noticed the glow of headlights turning into the driveway of the house. This was not good.

By the time the door opened, though, she was ready.

The person who walked into the foyer was a few centimeters taller than her, and he was drooping tiredly. He didn’t notice her hiding in the depths of the potted fern nearby until he had closed the door, and she had leapt out to pin him against it.

Her forearm held his shoulders back as she punched him in the gut with her other fist, one leg pinning both his knees to the door. “Who are you?”

He wheezed, bringing his right hand up - and then she saw the glint of silver.

When one of the magical enhancement jewels disappeared from the box kept in Hawk and Moth’s private quarters, they told the students that it had been given to someone outside of their organization, someone who they deemed as one of them, someone who needed it. They had been told not to hurt the person who had it if they were to meet them, nor were they to take the jewel from them.

The jewel in question was a ring, and the fact that it enhanced destruction was more than enough to warn the students away from trying to steal it, had the steely glint in Hawk’s eyes and the firm tone of Moth’s voice not been enough.

She let go immediately, and the guy sank to the floor, still wheezing. Marinette winced.  _ Shit. _

“Sorry,” she said softly.

The guy waved her off. Actually, now that she looked at him, he was kind of cute. And he had a cut on his face. She frowned.

“Who are you?” The guy asked, looking up at her through thick lashes. His eyes were a dazzling green.

“I’m Ladybug,” Marinette said, offering her hand.

He used it to pull himself up. “I’m … Chat Noir,” he said, eyeing her earrings. She eyed his ring again. “Did my … uh, who sent you?”

Marinette just stared at him - did he  _ really _ expect her to say?

It was then that they both heard footsteps coming towards them.

“This never happened,” Marinette warned, and then she slipped into the dining room, closing the door silently behind her just as she heard a female voice speak.

“Adrien?”

_ Nathalie Sancoeur, _ Marinette realised - now might be her chance!

“Ignore the target for now,” Moth said through the comms device in her ear, “just return to the base for tonight.”

“I’m sorry I failed,” Marinette told them when she returned, “I couldn’t find the right bedroom.”

“You didn’t fail,” Moth reassured.

“Far from it,” Hawk added, her eyes surprisingly misty. “There will be another night.”

“Go to bed now,” Moth said, and Marinette took her leave.

That night, she dreamt of a boy with emerald eyes and a sharp cut across his cheek.

**Author's Note:**

> As always, comments and constructive crit are welcome :)
> 
> Again, please note that this work will be ending on a cliffhanger, and what happens after will be up for interpretation by the reader. Any and all questions you may have can be asked in the comments section, and I will try to respond appropriately.
> 
> Thank you for reading!!
> 
> [You can find me on Tumblr here.](https://parisique.tumblr.com/)


End file.
